


Rapunzel, Rapunzel...

by crossing_wires



Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: AU, Anders Needs a Hug, Implied abuse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2016-11-13
Packaged: 2018-08-30 19:51:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8546872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crossing_wires/pseuds/crossing_wires
Summary: Anders escapes the Circle Tower and stumbles into Lothering resident Garrett Hawke, who promptly falls in love. When Anders is recaptured, well, it's not as if Garrett is just going to let the Templars keep him.





	

There's a joke in here somewhere, he's sure of it, something about blondes in towers and climbing, or possibly falling, out of windows, but his memory is fuzzy and the adrenaline is pounding hard in his chest. He probably shouldn’t be trying to come up with jokes while he’s breaking his boyfriend out of the Circle, but if he has a talent for anything it's for making light of seemingly impossibly dark situations. Call it a gift. 

Carver would call it a disease, but that's Carver, perpetual brooding storm cloud of teenage hormones and acne that he is. There's a joke, he's sure of it, something to do with that old fairy tale his Gram used to tell them in from of the fireplace on cold winter nights.

"Rapersnap... Wait, Raparnia. No, that's not it," Garrett mutters to himself as he fiddles with the skinny dagger he filched from his father's trunk. Just in case a Templar happened to be out for a late night swim, or wandered around the shore and saw him, skulking in his "borrowed" row boat under one of the few tower windows. He almost scoffs at himself as he flips the knife end over end. As if he could ever bring himself to use it.

He's still puzzling over the joke, tossing the knife higher and higher into the air with growing nervousness when he hears the slow creak of a window opening and sees what appears to be several bed sheets knotted together flop over the edge and dangle down the wall. A blonde head pops over the window sill, blurry in the moonlight, and Garrett waves frantically at it. The head retreats, a body shoves itself through the narrow window, and then carefully begins to lower itself none too gracefully down the makeshift rope. Garrett makes sure the little rowboat is positioned directly below, and he hides the knife away as he watches the descent nervously. The sheets come up a yard short and the man has to drop the final length, and suddenly Garrett finds himself with arms full of skinny, imbalanced, deceptively heavy mage.

"Anders," he says happily, a touch too loudly, and the other man hushes him breathlessly and gives him that crooked smile that Garrett is trying to convince himself he’s not falling in love with.

"Yes, it's me. What, you were expecting some other mage to be attempting an escape at this very time and place?"

Garrett just chuckles, a little quieter, and goes to hug him close. Except that there's a small, furry lump under Anders' cloak, and it gives a muffled yowl when he inadvertently squeezes it.

"A cat?" he hisses at the other man. "You brought a cat with you?"

"Yes," Anders says defensively, and Garrett can tell that he's blushing even in the faint moonlight, though he can't be sure whether it's from anger or embarrassment. "This is Mr. Wiggums, he's the best mouser in the whole tower, and I know I didn't think to tell you but he started crying when I opened that window and I just couldn't leave him behind, Garrett, please understand."

The look he gives Garrett seems designed to go straight for the heartstrings, all wide eyes and pouting lips, and he can't bring himself to scold Anders for his furry stow away. Instead, he gives an exaggerated shrug and his own crooked smile.

"I think my family is going to be so surprised with my bringing home an escaped apostate that they won't really think to question the cat. Bethany will love him, she’s always wanted a cat. Carver might suggest we send him into the stew pot, but that'll be because he thinks he's the funny one."

Garrett had hoped the little joke would relax Anders a bit, but if anything the mage is growing even more tense, still in the protective circle of Garrett's arms.

"You... You didn't tell them that you were doing this?"

His voice sounds a bit like he's choking, and Garrett rushes to try to sooth him.

"No, but it's fine! There's already two apostates in our house, I'm sure a third won't be too much trouble, and I'll take care of food and clothes and whatever you need until you settle in and can help Da and Bethany with the potions. And you can share my room! It'll be fine, you'll see, they're not going to loose their minds and send you back to the Circle."

Anders appears to have stopped breathing entirely. Garrett cups his face gently, running calloused thumbs over the mage's ice pale skin.

"They won't. I promise, they won't. You're safe now, Anders, you're safe. They won't send you back, I won't let them. Alright?"

Anders lets out a shaky breath.

"Alright. I trust you, for some idiotic reason."

"Definitely an idiotic reason," Garrett says, grinning again.

They make it back to Lothering in one piece, return the borrowed boat without being detected, and climb through the open window into Garrett's room without alerting a soul. They strip down to their smalls and slide into bed, Garrett pointedly not mentioning the fresh, still healing welts on Anders' back, though he rethinks his earlier assumption that he wouldn't be able to use a knife against another man. If the Templar who had put those marks on Anders were standing in front of him, Garrett thinks he could gut him as easily as he does the forest animals he hunts.

For now, however, he simply holds Anders to his chest carefully, arms settling around his shoulders instead of his back, and buries his face in that beautiful golden hair.

"Rapunzel," he remembers, moments from sleep. Anders simply grunts at him. "Rapunzel, like the story. Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, that one. You're Rapunzel."

"Fascinating," Anders grumbles.

"Hush, you know it's funny."

Anders sighs against his throat.

"Of course, my prince. Now would you please go to sleep?"

Garrett kisses the top of his head.

"Anything for you, Rapunzel. Anything."

**Author's Note:**

> #saveanders2k16
> 
> i just want the feather mage to be happy


End file.
